Vallejo Air

[Guest]

About to start my models and checking what paints I have and wanted people's advice who use Vallejo air what paint colours they use for British and German WWII air craft?

I bought some of the sets but when using colour convertor they don't match what I have.

About to do the 1:72 Dogfight Double Gift set which has a Bristol Beaufighter TF.X and a Focke-Wulf fw 190A-8.

The airfix manual says that humbrol 27 is used on both planes?

Thanks

[col68]

Dave according to my colour converter model air 71053 matches humbrol 27.

[Thorbrand]

Here is a website I use for colour conversions, it's pretty accurate http://www.paint4models.com/

Just make sure in the bottom left column you select the two brands to want to compare and un- tick the others, other wise you will get a huge list and will be confusing. On the right bottom box you enter the colour number ie: 27 and click search you will get a nice spreadsheet. On the colour converter it says Humbrol 27 is equal to Vallejo 991 Dark Sea Grey or 992 Neutral Grey

[BarryW]

Don't bother with any paint conversions. I assume that you have bought the Air Series sets for Vallejo. If the aircraft are Battle of Britain period, for instance, you can reasearch the right scheme from scratch. You need not really take any notice of aircraft colour instructions for the main camo schemes and just use the as guides for minor colours. The boxes of the Air Series sets provide a good guide.
Airfix and other makers colour instructions are often inaccurate anyway.
See what date the aircraft you are depicting was operated, what unit it was in, this should be in the instructions and what theatre of war it was in and from that it is easy to work out the correct camo scheme. There is a lot of online information and Google is a great research tool.

[BarryW]

A further thought.
Post on this thread the camo schemes as per the kit instructions Airfix say. The names of the colours not Humbrol numbers and information on the specifc aircraft you are modelling, where they served/unit etc and I will look up the correct colours for you. It's easy enough to do. I may not get a chance to get back on line until Monday am though.

[Guest]

What Barry says is exactly right. Rather than using the Airfix painting instructions as your guide, research the actual paint colours the specific aircraft were wearing & you'll keep things historically accurate.

For instance, Humbrol 27 is stated on the FW 190 as their equivalent for RLM 75 Grauviolet. However, it's not the most accurate of renditions & better matches are available.

Of course, most people wouldn't know the difference between the two, so it comes down to your own personal choice of how accurate you want to be.

One last tip - when you get round to the decals on the 190, cut the snake decal into 3 sections. That makes it much easier to apply... ask me how I know

[Guest]

Thanks Barry, details as follows:

Focke-Wulf fw 190 A-8
Blue four flown by leutenant Rudi Linz, 12 ./Jagdgeschwader 5 "Eismeer", Norway February, 1945
Matt yellow or matt white (alternative rudder colour)
Matt sea grey,
Matt black,
Matt light grey,
Matt US dark green,
Gun metal.

Bristol Beaufighter TF.X. X,
No. 144 squadron, royal air force Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, February 1945

Matt yellow,
Matt sea grey,
Matt black,
Matt light grey,
Matt US dark green,
Gun metal.

[Robert1968]

Hi Dave
I converted mainly all my paints to model Air and model colour and if I'm not mistaken John at SMS if you ask him nicely will supply you with a colour chart.
I find and have found that you can get a variety of Rlm. British WW2 and pre war sets pretty cheap and again I'm sure if you ask around there are plenty of suppliers out there. I have in the past also bought some small ball bearings as they help with the mixing of these wee bottles.( again at a reasonable price and can be re used once the paint bottle is empty but I find the paint goes a long way and thins down well with Vallejo thinners.
I'm still t yang to find a decent home brew on making my own thinners to save money but Vallejo thinners is good as you only use say two drops to 10 drops of paint in your cup. ( that's my ratio I work with )
I find the colour ratio is IMHO quite accurate to the subjects. Easy clean up too with A/b or if using a brush.
Hope this is of help

Regards

Robert

[Guest]

Thanks Patrick and Robert

[BarryW]

Thanks Barry, details as follows:

Focke-Wulf fw 190 A-8
Blue four flown by leutenant Rudi Linz, 12 ./Jagdgeschwader 5 "Eismeer", Norway February, 1945
Matt yellow or matt white (alternative rudder colour)
Matt sea grey,
Matt black,
Matt light grey,
Matt US dark green,
Gun metal.

Bristol Beaufighter TF.X. X,
No. 144 squadron, royal air force Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, February 1945

Matt yellow,
Matt sea grey,
Matt black,
Matt light grey,
Matt US dark green,
Gun metal.

Dave:

I have found out the following:

The FW190A-8
Camo was RLM 64/75/76.
in other words:
71.257 RLM 76 Underside
71.258 RLM 74 and 71.259 RLM 75 Topsides with a light mottle on the side.
Prop was light blue with a white spiral - use any light blue
Rudder was most likely white for this aircraft.
For yellow use 71.078 RLM 04
For the inside of the cockpit use RLM 66 - 71.055
The inside of the wheel wells is most likely RLM02 which is 71.044

The Coastal Command Beau was
Topsides Extra Dark Sea Grey which is 71.110 Dark Grey for Vallejo
Undersides Sky 71.302
Inside cockpit use 71.305 Interior Grey green

The Vallejo numbers are those as per the new Air War packs and may be different to those used previously as Vallejo have reviewed their colours.
Clearly minor colours like gunmetal etc are straight forward

[BarryW]

I thought I would add some links to useful website for investigating camo colours/paint.
This one is really useful:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/colorcharts.asp

http://wp.scn.ru/

http://www.fritzthefox.com/features.html

http://www.j-aircraft.com/a6mresearch/accolors.htm

https://www.cybermodeler.com/color/cockpit.shtml

https://www.cybermodeler.com/resource6.shtml

https://www.cybermodeler.com/resource1.shtml

For Vallejo here is a link to the Air War Series sets. Click on a set and it takes you to a list of colours in the set which helps give a good cross reference to the best colours to use.

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-air/family/17

[Guest]

Many thanks Barry for taking the time to compile such a great list, much appreciated
will see what Vallejo paints I have and place a order with John if he stocks the colors I don't have.